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attitudes, actions and reactions may unconsciously contribute to the existence of racism p. 309.
c. Racial beliefs in America
According to Szwed 1970 the course of racism in the United State has a continuous and lively story. Racism must be understood in terms of the group
structures of those who have strong biases in terms of those against whom it is directed. The course of racism changes and becomes stronger, richer, or more
powerful. It is almost always accompanied by changes in the other populations as well. The racist spirit of America as static and directed only toward Negroes is
immature and negative. In particular contexts, it appears instead that racism will be constantly changing-becoming directed and redirected at groups who are
perceived as somehow threatening at a given time pp. 58-59.
Myrdal 2000 adds when the Negroes were first enslaved, it was not justified in terms of the biological inferiority. In Christian countries, the
arguments were generally these; the Negro was a heathen and a barbarian, an outcast among the peoples of the earth, a descendant of Noah’s son Ham, cursed
by God himself and doomed to be a servant forever on account of an ancient sin p. 87.
According to Myrdal 2000 in the South the slaves were beneficial for the slave owners, and the agricultural economy was largely founded on slave labor.
When the Constitution was written, slavery had to be taken as an economic and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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political fact. However, indicative of the moral situation in America at that time that the words “slave” and “slavery” were avoided p. 88.
Myrdal 2000 also explains that the two differences, the physical and the cultural, must have been associated in the minds of white people. He states when
color differences match with differences in cultural levels then, color becomes symbolic and each individual is automatically classified by the racial uniform he
wears. For examples darker color, woolly hair, and other physical Negro characteristics. Because of that, Black people became steadily associated with
lower status, backward culture, low intelligence performance and lack of morals. All unfavorable reactions to Negroes became easily attributed to every Negro as a
Negro, that is, to the race and to the individual only secondarily as a member of the race. Myrdal adds that the Negro race is said to be several hundreds of
thousands of years behind the white man in “development”. Accordingly, the
mind of the Negro race cannot be improved beyond a given level pp. 95-96.
d. Effects of Jim Crow
According to United States History 2016, Jim Crow Laws which were statutes and ordinances established between 1874 and 1975 is to separate the
white and black races in the American South. In theory, it was to create separate but equal treatment. In practice Jim Crow Laws drove black citizens to inferior
treatment and facilities. Education was separated as were public facilities such as hotels
and restaurants
under Jim
Crow Laws
http:www.u-s- history.compagesh1559.html. Parrilo 1985 explains that belief in white
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superiority has existed for a long time in the United States. There have been, and still are, people who believe that Blacks are biologically inferior to Whites. He
adds that belief of white superiority and Jim Crow law are the reason for many problems today p.309. The existences of Jim Crow Laws that time make the
conditions worse. According to Parrillo 1985 the effects of Jim Crow law did not only
happened in the South of the US but also happened in the North. For the six decades of the twentieth century, Jim Crow laws maintained racially separated
society in the South. All aspects of public interaction were distinguished in use and accessibility by race. Some people accept a word of structural discrimination
as “normal”. Since the white world of reality was one in which differential treatment was the norm, the inferior of Blacks was taken for granted pp. 319-
320. Parrillo 1985 also explains that structural discrimination in the South was
pervasive. As Blacks’ educations and job opportunities were limited, the end
result of that action was to reinforce the attitude supporting the action. Thus, suffering the consequences of lack and limited opportunity only make worse
Blacks’ situation. They were an easily identifiable group that did not hold better- paying jobs or become educated such as they lived under poverty, disease, crime,
and violence, and they were not good enough to use the same facilities as Whites. This gave the Whites more reason for their hatred to Blacks and increased their
discriminatory actions. When the North has few separation law exists, the large numbers of Blacks began to migrate to the Northern urban areas. Although there
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